| | |  Travel & Outdoors | May 2009 
Swine Flu is Windfall for Some US Tourism Spots
 Travis Reed - Associated Press
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| | The cruise ship Carnival Splendor is seen passing under the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. The outbreak of swine flu in Mexico is resulting in an unexpected boon for the Port of San Francisco, as cruise ships that ordinarily sail to places such as Puerto Vallarta are being diverted to San Francisco. (Ben Margot/P-D) | |
The cruise that Zenaiva Cervantes booked was to stop in sun-drenched beach cities on the Mexican Riviera.
The cruise she took?
It landed her in Seattle, where she pulled her arms tightly to her chest as she debarked on a damp, 50-degree morning.
"We wanted to relax in the warmth," Cervantes, 61, of Tijuana, Mexico, said in Spanish Thursday. "If someone had told me I'd be in Seattle eight days ago, I wouldn't have believed them."
At the peak of the swine flu outbreak, major cruise operators Carnival Corp. and Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd. — desperate to avoid passenger illness and lost revenue — decided to reroute Mexican voyages until mid-June.
So even though fear has receded, once-sun-seeking passengers such as Cervantes are finding themselves in San Francisco, Seattle and Victoria, British Columbia.
What they're losing in sunshine and tan lines, their new destinations are gaining in millions of dollars of business. In San Francisco, the 16 additional swine flu-related landings will boost the year's port traffic 31 percent and bring 49,000 new visitors, said Michael Nerney, San Francisco's maritime marketing manager. Each call could mean $1 million in sales for city businesses.
The great number of alternative ports in the Caribbean makes it far easier to swap stops there. Instead of Cozumel in Mexico, companies are opting for Ocho Rios or Montego Bay in Jamaica, Nassau or Freeport in the Bahamas, the Virgin Islands' St. Thomas, St. Maarten or Key West, Fla.
Analysts think the benefits may be fleeting.
"I think it's a short-term bump that may already be dissipating," said Michael McCall, a hospitality research fellow and lecturer at Cornell University.
Jan Freitag, vice president of global development at Smith Travel Research, noted that, in addition to swine flu, Mexican travel has been affected by fear of heightened drug violence in border states. He sees business travel to Mexico remaining steady and swine flu having minimal impact on leisure traffic unless the virus worsens.
Hotel operators are seeing travelers postpone plans. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company and Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts said virtually all guests booked at two of their Mexico resorts in late April and early May will come a few months later instead. Starwood Hotels & Resorts Inc. expected the flu to cost it $4 million to $5 million in revenue but said it could recover much of it from guests rebooked at its U.S. or Caribbean resorts.
Eric Brey, head of the Center for Resort and Hospitality Business at the University of Memphis, predicted that tourists would have no problem returning quickly to Mexico.
"Outside of this summer, I don't see it being that big a deal," Brey said. |
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